Raygun (real name Rachael Gunn), the Australian breakdancer who took the internet by storm after her unique performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, is quickly becoming one of the most marketable athletes of the year, signing on with an influencer marketing agency.
Gunn, who scored no points for her performance and was kicked out of the competition in the first round, went viral for her one-of-a-kind performance. Since returning to Australia, she has quietly signed with influencer marketing agency Born Bred Talent, which represents some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest social media stars, including The Inspired Unemployed.
With Gunn likely hoping to capitalise on her new fame, contact details for agency general manager Stephanie Scicchitano appeared in her Instagram bio this week.
But this is not the first sign of Gunn becoming one of the more marketable athletes of the year. Calls are growing rapidly for the breakdancer to be immortalised in the form of a collectible Funko Pop figurine.
Funko Pops have become a cultural phenomenon over the last few years, with a massive global fan base and frequent collaborations with major franchises across movies, television, sports and video games.
Many fans have called for the Olympian to be the next on the brand’s 8,300 unique design roster. “I’d buy this instantly”, one fan commented on a post that shared a mock-up design for the figurine.
Some believe that a Raygun Funko Pop could trigger an entire Olympics range for the brand including superstars of the sporting world and other meme-worth athletes like Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec.
“Next we would need the Turkish shooter (cat included), the gorgeous Italian girl with block of cheese [Giorgia Villa], and the precious Chinese girl [Zhou Yaqin] biting the medal,” one fan suggested.
A photographer in the US has also immortalised the Olympian, creating a unique tribute in the California desert.
Darren Pearson, who goes by the artist name Dariustwin, used light to paint 44 images on his camera that showed various moves from Raygun’s now-infamous breakdancing routine at the Paris Olympics. The images were stitched together into a video dubbed with the real sound from her performance. Many commenters praised the artwork for being “more impressive than the original performance”.
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Raygun is just the latest in a long list of meme-worthy figures being used as marketing gold. After the Hawk Tuah Girl (Hailey) went viral on social media earlier this year, a number of brands quickly jumped on board the trend, building campaigns referencing the iconic video.
@haileywelchusa #hawktuah #hawktuahgirl #hawk #fyp #xybca ♬ original sound – HaileyWelchUSA
Hailey has since been able to quit her job at the local spring factory and has been making bank selling her own branded merchandise and sharing her story on social media.
So will Raygun become the next big influencer? Or will the internet move on to the next big trend, in the way it always does, as Gunn returns to her life as an academic? Time will tell.
